LADY HUSTON’S GIFT

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 19

LADY HUSTON’S GIFT

SUM OF HALF A MILLION. London, Nov. 28. Lady Houston, widow of Sir Robert Houston, the millionaire shipowner, who died last April, has given .£500,000 to be divided among the members of the family of her -late husband’s grandnephew, Mr. Cecil Houston Skinner. The latter recently claimed to be the legal heir to the estate. The Appeal Court of Jersey, in August, upheld the decision of the Lower Court, which had granted a benefice d’hiventairc in connection with the estate of Sir Robert Houston to Mr. Cecil Houston Smerclqn Skinner, who claimed to be Sir- Robert’s next-of-kin. It was stated at the time that the estate was known to be worth more than £5,000,000. A benefice d'inventaire is a procedure in Jersey law by which an heir who has any reasonable doubt as to the solvency of an estate in which lie is interested may, before he takes any part in the succession, obtain a full examination of the estate by the Vieomte or chief executive officer. The effect of this procedure is to substitute the Vieomte fox the executor in the windingup of the estate. After the death of her husband Lady Houston was held to be mentally incapable of looking after her affairs. However, a few days after Mr. Skinner's appeal she was declared by experts to have regained her normal state of mind, whereupon the Jersey Royal Courts reinstated her into her eivil rights. It was shown that her illness and mental instability had been due to jaundice.